I prefer buying the retail hard copy of games for my own reasons. I understand that GFWL is related to the DLC's of Fallout 3, but I havent been able to determine as to what extent. What I'm interested in is the retail hard copy of the GOTY edition so I can get all the DLC's plus the original game on disks. I've read that the disks do contain the DLC's so they don't need to be downloaded from GFWL, but do I still have to be signed in to a GFWL account to play or register the DLC's? I plan on selling my copy in the future, but I'm unsure of how the game license will be treated by GFWL or any other online/offline account. I don't want the game to be tied to my GFWL or other online/offline account so that whoever buys the game from me will have to use the account I tied the game to. From what I've read it appears as though you can create an offline account to play the game, but wouldnt that mean that whoever I sell the game to would have to use the same account if they wanted to play offline? I know the game can be bought for real cheap, especially in the steam sale, but I prefer hard copy's and I like to get rid of games that I'm done playing. When games are this cheap its not about selling the game to get some money back, because I won't get much if any at all. To me its more about cleaning out the "clutter" of games I have no desire to replay again, and I just don't like the idea of unused games sitting in my steam account.

TLDR: please educate me on how GFWL works on the hard copy of the GOTY edition for Fallout 3, and if its possible to prevent my games license from being tied to an online and offline account.

You do not have to be online at any time to play the game. What you do need is the 1.7 patch available here and the most recent GFWL client. Once you have those installed you can either get a GFWL disabler or install FOSE. It is better to just use FOSE because you will probably need it if you intend to mod the game. I am assuming you are talking about the PC version, not the console version.